Our Week in the Forest...

The children have been super busy this week showing a new kind of creativity through tool work. The children used the bow saw to cut their own log slices, choosing the log to cut and the length to cut it. Once cut, the children then decided what they were going to do with their logs. Some made medals by painting patterns on the face of the surface, some made badges and watches using crayons to detail the top. A few children wanted to make their own mallets so they cut a long log slice and started to peel one end of it to make a handle. The newly made mallets were then used to hammer in sticks to create a mini garden for planting seeds!

This week we also had our first real fire! After learning for the past two weeks how to be safe around the fire circle, the children were absolutely ready! They were transfixed as they watched the flames swirl and whirl and they loved to smell the smoke and feel the warmth coming from the flames. After the fire was out and cold, the children used the charcoal left over to draw pictures on our giant log slices!

We sadly had our last day with Otis this week. The children were sad to say goodbye but they were super motivated to make him some special leaving cards and pictures. They helped make a giant collage of natural materials to build a picture frame and spent a long time carefully drawing pictures to remember them by!

The children had mentioned that they wanted to make fishing rods using long sticks and string so we collected some sticks and the children stripped them down during the evening. We kept all the leaves and twigs to use in the mud kitchen and put all the long sticks in a bag ready for the next day. In the morning, we set up the tool use area with peelers and the children set about stripping the bark off! Each child created something which was unique and creative according to what they wanted to do with the item next. Some children made drum sticks, one a recorder, another a wand and one child made some chopsticks! The wonderful thing about this activity was that it evolved as it went along with the children’s changing ideas, and in the end no fishing rod was ever made!